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WEBSTER'S 

FIRST 

BUNKER-HILL ORATION. 



EDITED BY 

LOUISE MANNING HODGKINS. 

Wellesley College. 



Remember that Fortune had no part in this." 

TiMOTHEUS, 376 B.C. 




LEACH, SHEWELL, cV SANBORN. 
BOSTON AND NEW YORK. 






Copyright, 1SS9, 
By Leach, Shewell, & Sanborn. 



C. J. PETERS & SON, 

Typographers and Electrotypers, 

145 High Street, Boston. 



PREFACE. 



Little great literary work, worthy of both critical 
study and contemplative thought, and at the same time 
closely associated with American History, has been 
treated with greater neglect than that of the American 
orators of the first half of the present century. For 
sound matter and good form, as an incentive to noble 
endeavor or as a model of noble art, the writings of 
Daniel Webster are especially remunerative. 

No wonder Thorwaldsen, the sculptor, seeing for the 
first time Hiram Powers's sketch of the head of the great 
American orator, exclaimed, " Ah ! a design for Jupiter ! " 
It is to be hoped, for the sake of future American citi- 
zens, that the uniform courses now required for entrance 
to many of our colleges will continue to include the 
orations of our statesmen until it will be impossible to 
find a youth, trained in our High Schools and Acade- 
mies, unfamiliar with the best speeches of our best 

speakers. 

L. M. H. 
Wellesley College, May 22, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 

* 

AifERICAN ObATORS 1 

Webster the Man 3-8 

The Style of Webster 8-10 

Famous Speeches of Webster 10 

Hints on the Study of an Oration 11-14 

Address 15-42 

Introduction to Notes 43-44 

Notes 45-51 



TEN FAMOUS AMERICAN ORATORS. 



John Eandolph, 1773-1833. 
Henry Clay, 1777-1852. 
Daniel Webster, 1782-1852. 
John C. Calhoun, 1782-1850. 
Edward Everett, 1794-1865. 
EuFus Choate, 1799-1858. 
William Lloyd Garrison, 1804-1879. 
Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865. 
Charles Sumner, 1811-1874. 
Wendell Phillips, 1811-1884. 
1 



WEBSTER. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

WEBSTEll THE MAN. 

Birth at Salisbuiy, N.H., 1782. 

Graduation at Dartmouth College, 1801. 

Admission to the Bar, 1805. 

First marriage (to Grace Fletcher), 1808. 

Election to the United States House of Representatives, 1812. 

Second election to the United States House of Representa- 
tives, 1815. 

Removal to Boston, 1816. 

Member of the Convention to revise the Constitution of Mas- 
sachusetts, 1820. 

Third election to House of Representatives, 1822. 

Fourth election to House of Representatives, 1824. 

Election to the United States Senate, 1828. 

Second marriage (to Caroline LeRoy), 1829. 

Leader of the Whig party, 1834. 

Nomination for presidency by the Whig party of Massachu- 
setts, 1834. 

Visit to Europe, 1839. 

Second election to Senate, 1839. 

Secretary of State to Presidents Harrison and T^der, 1841- 
1843. 

Negotiation of Ashburton Treaty, 1842. 

Third election to the Senate, 1844. 

3 



4 WEBSTER. 

Secretary of State to President Fillmore, 1850-1852. 
Despatch to Hulsemann, 1850. 

Defeat by Whig party in presidential nomination of 1852. i 
Death at Marshlield, Mass., Oct. 21, 1852.2 

One of the jDublic buildings of Harvard University is adorned 
with the sculptm'ed heads of the world's renowned orators. 
With Demosthenes and Cicero, Bossuet and Bm"ke, Webster 
finds fair companionship. The skilful jurist, the revered sena- 
tor, the judicious cabinet oflicer, the brilliant statesman, are 
outranked when we recall in him the noble orator, who, like 
Wallace of Scotland, left his name *' like a wild-flower, all over 
his dear country." 

Daniel Webster was born at Salisbury, N.H., Jan. 18, 1782, 
His father, Ebenezer Webster, served his country both in the 
French and Indian War and the Revolution, thus giving his 
son a natural inheritance of i^atriotism. No less was he in- 
debted to his mother for the intellectual strength and childlike 
simplicity which marked liis thought-habit. A delicate infancy 
and childhood gave no promise of the vigorous jDhysique or 
stately beauty of his middle and later years, while the gentle 
care incident to the rearing of the frail boy precluded the pos- 
sibility of asking ' ' from the season more than its timely prod- 
uce." Happily, in his wholesome country home the Bible, 
Shakespeare, Pope, Addison, and Don Quixote made ample 
amends for the dearth of so-called child-literature. 

Young Webster's preparation 'for college, like the ghost of 
Hamlet's father, was a thing "of shreds and patches." The 
scant instruction of the village school, with a few months at 
Phillips Exeter Academy, was supplemented by the private 
tuition of the Rev. Samuel Wood, a country parson otherwise 

1 Webster was three times defeated in his presidential aspirations. 
- Only one sson, of live sons and daughters, survived him: Fletcher Web. 
ster, born in Portsmouth, 1812, was killed in the battle of Bull Run, 1862. 



BIOGBAPHICAL SKETCH. 5 

unknown to fame. This preliminary work consisted in a 
modicum of mathematics, for which he had little taste, a smat- 
tering of Greek grammar, six books of Virgil's ^Eneid, and a 
few of Cicero's Orations. His best equipment was his indom- 
itable courage, his tireless industry, and an ability for self- 
denial which John Stirling rightly says makes the worst edu- 
cation better than the best that omits it. 

He entered Dartmouth College in August, 1797, taking his 
degree after the customary four years of study. The education 
which it cost his parents sacrifice and privation to give was 
valued to its utmost opportunity. It was a career of genius, 
but never of idle genius. One of his biographers says of him, 
" His faculty for labor was something prodigious, his memory 
disciplmed by methods not taught him by others, and his in- 
tellect was expanded far beyond his years. He was abstemi- 
ous, religious, of the highest sense of honor, and of the most 
elevated deportment. His manners were genial, his affections 
warm, his conversation brilliant and instructive, his temj^era- 
ment cheerful, his gayety overflowing." 

Fully believing that his brother possessed the nobler parts, 
and foreseeing the gulf that would inevitably widen between 
the brother at college and the brother on the farm, Webster 
occupied his later college vacations and his early years after 
graduation by teaching, in order to devote the proceeds to the 
education of Ezekiel, whose brief but brilliant history fully 
justified this estimate of his powers. 

On his admission to the bar, Webster was a tall, vigorous, 
finely proportioned man, whose massive forehead and thick, 
black, beetling eyebrows overshadowed a pair of black eyes as 
solemn-looking as they were searching. His carriage was 
erect and slow, his manner moderate and reserved ; and, in- 
deed, his whole bearing, after forty years of political life, was 
but the emphasis of this earlier portrait. 



6 WEBSTER. 

His career as a lawyer, after his admission to the bar in 1805, 
and a brief in-actice in his native State and in Boston, was soon 
merired in the laro^er life of the orator and statesman. It is 
fitting that a man whose first and last serions thought was " his 
country, his whole country, and nothing but his country," should 
have made his first great national speech at Plymouth on the 
occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the 
Pilgrims. The attention that this, together with former patri- 
otic addresses of local interest, and his interests with the Fed- 
eral party, called forth, sent him as the representative of that 
party to the thirteenth Congress in 1815. These were the days 
of Clay and Calhoun, and the beginning of the great debates 
on the tariff, of the earliest hints of the great anti-slavery con- 
troversies of the middle of the century, of the settling of our 
strained relations to England, and the proposed independence 
of the South American republics. 

From this period his political advancement was without retro- 
gression, though he continued his legal practice, and was ad- 
mitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, where he won 
immediate fame by establishing a ruling in the relation of States 
to corporate bodies in the famous Dartmouth College decision. 

From 1813, when he took his seat as representative, to the 
date of his death in 1852, when he filled the office of Secretary 
of State to President Fillmore, he occupied the positions suc- 
cessively of re-elected representative, member of the Conven- 
tion to revise the Constitution of Massachusetts, United States 
senator, and cabinet officer. 

No brief sketch can enumerate the services that, in these 
various capacities, were done for the countiy he served. The 
boy who could not see himself take privileges and opportuni- 
ties that were denied his elder brother was father of the man 
who made the triumphant reply to Senator Hayne of South 
Carolina, and showed how the larger family constitution was 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 1 

endangered by the monopoly of rights in a single member ; the 
youth whose early private necessities demanded that every 
penny be invested with reflection, so thoroughly mastered the 
science of finance that the record of his counsel as to the public 
purse is with few equals, and no superiors. Had Mr. Web- 
ster's advice been taken, the ruinous financial disasters of 1837 
would not to-day blot our commercial history. The country 
school teacher whom recreant lads nicknamed "All-eyes," de- 
veloped a seer's vision, which made him for more than a quar- 
ter of a century America's greatest political teacher. 

There is a sad significance in the words he once uttered, and 
which he intended to be taken only literally, ' ' Whatever I have 
accomplished has been done early in the morning." Webster's 
great work was done before, possessed of unrestrained ambition 
and excited by the brilliancy of his own intellect and the unwise 
devotion of his personal friends, he pursued unworthily the 
phantom of the possible presidency, and j^laced himself where 
the temptation to a time-serving spirit was irresistible. Re- 
membering the losses and defeats of that later period, one is 
disposed to thank God with him that no one could take away 
what he had done for his country ; but the just narrator Avill 
remember also that the best was done early in the morning, be- 
fore he had learned, with another wise man, the vanity of 
earthly expectations. Solomon said, "All is vanity;" Web- 
ster, " I have given my life to law and politics. Law is un- 
certain, and politics is utterly vain." 

As the great statesman recedes farther and farther in the 
background of our political history, he who has an eye for per- 
spective cannot fail to see how, like the peak of TenerifFe, he 
towers above his fellows, or to recall Bacon's aphorism, " There 
is no great beauty without some strange disproportion." The 
ultimate product of his life presents all the curious contradic- 
tions which can result from an intense love of nature and her 



8 WEBSTER. 

solitudes, and the arena and its excitements ; from devoted love 
of family and fi'iends, and overweening love of personal power ; 
from sincere regard for his country's weal, and the ability to 
hazard it and produce her woe. But he would be no profound 
logician, and no clear-sighted reviewer, who could not discern 
that, in spite of all, by the frequent restatement of universal 
truths ; by reiterated appeals for the necessity of the preserved 
Union ; by judicious counsel in our financial affairs, both do- 
mestic and foreign; by tlie creation of apolitical literature, 
that, in the mouth of every schoolboy, becomes the unconscious 
sentiment of his manhood, Daniel Webster made himself the 
Foster-Father of our American nationality. 



THE STYLE OF WEBSTER. 

Because a superior theme gives a superior vocabulary, we 
find Webster's richest words in those orations which celebrate 
the glory of his country rather than in his less famous but 
masterly legal pleas. 

To any one familiar with his life, the sources of his vocab- 
ulary are not far to find. He chooses simple, strong words, 
largely, because in his childhood and youth he had committed 
to memory so much of the Bible and Shakespeare, tliat in 
manhood he had at his command a great exchequer of Anglo- 
Saxon words. No better example in Websterian littr'ature 
illustrates his indebtedness to this source than the orat" o we 
are about to study, as severe and unadorned in its n assive 
strength as the monument whose erection it celebrates. It is 
in this stronghold, too, of the Anglo-Saxon, that he is utterly 
saved from the ordinary temptation of the civic orator ; from 
the strained vehemence of a Calhoun, the verbal felicities of a 
Clay, and the somewhat over-nice elegance of an Everett. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 9 

In the structure of his sentences, Webster offers a pleasing 
variety; neither the long and periodic, nor the short and 
abrupt prevails. If he has any distinct tendency, it is either 
toward the short or the loose sentence, except in those famous 
perorations whose very nature demanded a sustained length, 
because of their sustained flight. Often he avails himself of 
that antithetical eftect which makes tedious the pages of 
Macaulay ; more often he makes the happiest use of the bal- 
anced sentence, as in, "I mean to use my tongue in the 
Court, not my pen ; to be an actor, not a registrar of other 
men's actions." Most often he delivers himself of a three- 
fold form which seems, in his method of use, original ; as, — 

" I was born an American, I live an American, I will die an 
American ; " " we do it once, we do it for our generation, per- 
haps forever;" "made for the people, made by the people, 
and answerable to the people " (of the government) ; " Liberty 
and union, one and insej^arable, now and forever; " " Sink or 
swim, live or die, survive or perish." 

But whether long and sustained, or short and brilliant, there 
is no arrangement of words for eflfect. There is always the 
same consistent subservience of the expression to the thougKf , 
always the same dependence upon the certain foundations of 
logic rather than the uncertain flights of rhetoric. Although 
finish and smoothness do not fail in his best efforts, nor dig- 
nity and grandeur in his every effort, it is this natural con- 
servation of energy, the physical and intellectual inheritance 
of three generations that makes Henry Hallam say, in a 
private letter to Mrs. Ticknor, "Mr. Webster approaches the 
beau ideal of a Republican senator more than any man I have 
seen in the course of my life. He is worthy of Rome or of 
Venice rather than of our noisy and wrangling generation." 
To sum up in a single word the leading characteristic of 
Webster's style, one must avail himself of the word that to 



10 WEBSTER. 

him was the keynote of national strength, and which whether 
found in the single sentence, or the full thought, or the entire 
oration, was the ruling passion of his style and his life — unity ! 



THE TEN MOST FAMOUS SPEECHES OF DANIEL 
WEBSTER. 

On THE Dartmouth College Case. U. S. Supreme Court, 
March 10, 1818. 

On the Character of the New England Settlers. 
Plymouth, Mass., Dec. 22, 1820. 

On the Laying of the Corner Stone of Bunker Hill 
Monument. Charlestown, Mass., June 17, 1825. 

Adams and Jefferson. Faneuil Hall, Boston, Mass., 
Aug. 2, 1826. 

State's Rights (Webster's celebrated reply to Hayne). 

Washington, D. C, Jan. 26, 27, 1830. 

The Character of Washington. Washington, D. C, 

Feb. 22, 1832. 

On National Finance. Washington, D. C, July 11, 1832. 

On the Completion of Bunker Hill Monument. Charles- 
town, Mass., June 17, 1843. 

On the Religious Instruction of the Young (Girard 
College Case). Washington, D. C, Feb. 20, 1844. 

The Constitution and the Union. Washington, D. C, 

March 7, 1850. 



HINTS ON THE STUDY OF AN 
ORATION. 



There are more than Moliere's "Bourgeois Gentil- 
homme " who seem to think that " All that is not poetry- 
is prose." Though in its broadest sense the term in- 
cludes technically philosophic and scientific literatures, 
in the narrower and generally accepted sense, it confines 
itself to such works as have a distinct literary form. 
For example, we would not speak of an author who had 
written, however well, a series of arithmetics, as a 
writer of English Prose. This is because a certain 
artistic element must enter into the literary form, 
and then it becomes Philosophical Prose, as in Leslie 
Stephen's "History of English Thought;" Historical 
Prose, as in Macaulay's " History of England ; " Poetic 
Prose, as in Puskin's " Seven Lamps of Architecture ; " 
Oratorical Prose, as in Webster's "Bunker Hill Ora- 
tions ; " Periodical Prose, as in the ordinary essay and 
review ; or a combination of two or more of these forms, 
as in the Novel or Komance. 

The Oration among prose forms is a composition, 
which, through argument or reason, heightened by a 
presentation in person, affects the imagination or will of 

11 



12 WEBSTEE. 

the hearer by persuasion. Its best characteristics are 
sincerity and earnestness. 

In studying an oration, we note first to what gen- 
eral class it belongs : as the judicial, which by accusa- 
tion or defence presents a legal argument; the sacred, 
which by exposition and exhortation presents an ethical 
argument ; or the forensic, which by eulogy or convic- 
tion presents a political argument. The next point to 
ascertain is the circumstances under which it is deliv- 
ered as affecting the form of presentation. For exam- 
ple, the local color of the oration in question is deepened 
both by the fact that it was given on the site of Bunker 
Hill and to an audience containing individuals who had 
maintained a significant part in the battle commemor- 
ated. Such environments determine whether the speaker 
can appeal most successfully to the intellect, the will, 
or the emotions. In the case of political oratory in 
general, truth is expounded, rights defended, minds con- 
victed, consciences persuaded, emotions excited, or senti- 
ments aroused; sometimes several or all these objects 
may be attempted, but the best oratory has a preponder- 
ance in favor of one. In the third place a careful stu- 
dent will note what branch of an especial theme is 
treated. For example, under political oratory, one 
might discuss the constitution, or national finance, or the 
empire of the state, or the responsibilities of an impend- 
ing election, or the incentives to a great future by the 
study of a great past. Whatever be the theme treated, 
oratory worthy of a statesman must show, on the part of 
the speaker, a large knowledge of general history and 



HINTS ON THE STUDY OF AN ORATION. 13 

literature, conversance with the science of government 
and constitutional law, and enthusiasm for public inter- 
ests. Such oratory not only becomes a present incen- 
tive to public duty, but is equally valuable as a record 
for future counsel. There is no country which furnishes 
a more interesting study of oratorical prose than the 
American Eepublic, and no orator who has held more 
securely the public mind, both in his spoken and written 
form of the address, than Daniel Webster, and this is be- 
cause his themes, however local, were always made uni- 
versal in their interest. Happily Mr. Webster, in his 
famous eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, has given us the 
key to successful oratory, in a passage only second in 
felicity to that of Shakespeare in his directions for " the 
play within the play," in " Hamlet." 

" When public bodies are to be addressed on moment- 
ous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and 
strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech 
further than as it is connected with high intellectual and 
moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness 
are the qualities which produce conviction. True elo- 
quence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be 
brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, 
but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be 
marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. 
It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the 
occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the 
pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it ; they cannot 
reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreak- 
ing of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth 



14 WEBSTER. 

of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. 
The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments 
and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust 
men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, 
their children, and their country, hang on the decision 
of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric 
is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even 
genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the 
presence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is elo- 
quent; then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear con- 
ception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high 
purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking 
on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every 
feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward 
to his object, — this, this is eloquence; or, rather, it is 
something greater, and higher than all eloquence, — it is 
action, noble, sublime, godlike action." ^ 

1 It is interesting to note in connection with the orations of Webster, that 
his manner of public speaking was deliberate and imposing; that he spoke, 
except when under great excitement, in a low, sustained, musical tone. 



ADDRESS. 



This uncounted multitude before n;e, and around me, i 
proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These 
thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and 
joy, and, from the impulses of a common gratitude, turned 
reverently to heaven, in this spacious temple of the firma- 
ment, proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose 5 
of our assembling have made a deep impression on our 
hearts. 

If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to 
affect the mind of man, we need not strive to repress the 
emotions which agitate us here. We are among the sep- 10 
ulchres of our fathers. We are on ground, distinguished 
by their valor, their constancy, and the shedding of their 
blood. We are here, not to fix an uncertain date in our 
annals, nor to draw into notice an obscure and unknown 
spot. If our humble purpose had never been conceived, 15 
if we ourselves had never been born, the 17th of June, 
1775, would have been a day on which all subsequent his- 
tory would have poured its light, and the eminence where 
we stand, a point of attraction to the eyes of successive 

15 



16 WEBSTEB, 

generations. But we are Americans. We live in what 
may be called the early age of this great continent ; and 
we know that our posterity, through all time, are here to 
suffer and enjoy the allotments of humanity. We see 
before us a probable train of great events ; we know that 
our own fortunes have been happily cast ; and it is natu- 
ral, therefore, that we should be moved by the contempla- 
tion of occurrences which have guided our destiny before 
many of us were born, and settled the condition in which 
we should pass that portion of our existence which God 
allows to men on earth. 

We do not read even of the discovery of this continent, 
without feeling something of a personal interest in the 
event ; without being reminded how much it has affected 
our own fortunes, and our own existence. It is more 
impossible for us, therefore, than for others, to contem- 
plate with unaffected minds that interesting, I may say 
that most touching and pathetic scene, when the great 
Discoverer of America stood on the deck of his shattered 
bark, the shades of night falling on the sea, yet no man 
sleeping ; tossed on the billows of an unknown ocean, yet 
the stronger billows of alternate hope and despair tossing 
his own troubled thoughts; extending forward his har- 
assed frame, straining westward his anxious and eager 
eyes, till Heaven at last granted him a moment of rapture 
and ecstasy, in blessing his vision with the sight of the 
unknown world. 

Nearer to our times, more closely connected with our 
fates, and therefore still more interesting to our feelings 
and affections, is the settlement of our own country by 



ADDRESS. 17 

colonists from England. We cherisli every memorial of 50 
these worthy ancestors ; we celebrate their patience and 
fortitude ; we admire their daring enterprise ; we teach 
our children to venerate their piety ; and we are justly 
proud of being descended from men who have set the 
world an example of founding civil institutions on the 55 
great and united principles of human freedom and human 
knowledge. To us, their children, the story of their 
labors and sufferings can never be without its interest. 
We shall not stand unmoved on the shore of Plymouth, 
while the sea continues to wash it ; nor will our brethren 60 
in another early and ancient colony, forget the place of 
its fii:st establishment, till their river shall cease to flow 
by it. No vigor of youth, no maturity of manhood, will 
lead the nation to forget the spots where its infancy was 
cradled and defended. 65 

But the great event, in the history of the continent, 
which we are now met here to commemorate ; that prodigy 
of modern times, at once the wonder and the blessing of 
the world, is the American Kevolution. In a day of ex- 
traordinary prosperity and happiness, of high national 70 
honor, distinction, and power, we are brought together, in 
this place, by our love of country, by our admiration of 
exalted character, by our gratitude for signal services and 
patriotic devotion. 



The society, whose organ I am, was formed for the pur- 
pose of rearing some honorable and durable monument to 
the memory of the early friends of American Independ- 
ence. They have thought, that for this object no time 



75 



18 WEBSTER. 

80 could be more propitious thaajthe present prosperous jud^ 
peaceful period ; that no place could claim preference over 
this memorable spot; and that no day could be more 
auspicious to the undertaking than the anniversary of the 
battle which was here fought. The foundation of that- 

85 monument we have now laid. With solemnities suited to 
the occasion, with prayers to Almighty God for his bless- 
ing, and in the midst of this cloud of witnesses, we have 
begun the work. We trust it will be prosecuted; and 
that springing from a broad foundation, rising high in 

90 massive solidity and unadorned grandeur, it may remain, 

as long as Heaven permits the works of man to last, a fit' 

emblem, both of the events in memory of which_it is 

raised, and of the gratitude of those who have reared it. 

We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions 

95 is most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of 
mankind. We know, that if we could cause this structure 
to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it 
pierced them, its broad surfaces could still contain but 
part of that, which, in an age of knowledge, hath already 
100 been spread over the earth, and which history charges 
itself with making known to all future times. We know, 
that no inscription on entablatures less broad than the 
earth itself, can carry information of the events we com- 
memorate, where it has not already gone ; and that no 
105 structure, which shall not outlive the duration of letters 
and knowledge among men, can prolong the memorial. 
But our object is, by this edifice to show our own deep 
sense of the value and importance of the achievements of 
and, by i^resenting this work of gratitude 



ADDRESS. 19 

to the eye, to keep alive similar sentimentSj and to foster no 
a constant regard for the principles of the Revolution. 
Human beings are composed not of reason only, but of 
imagination also, and sentiment ; and that is neither 
wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated to the pur- 
pose of giving right direction to sentiments, and opening 115 
proper springs of feeling in the heart. Let it not be sup- 
posed that our object is to perpetuate national hostility, 
or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, 
purer, nobler. We consecrate our work to the spirit of 
national independence, and we wish that the light of peace 120 
may rest upon it forever. We rear a memorial of our 
conviction of that unmeasured benefit which has been 
conferred on our own land, and of the happy influences 
which have been produced, by the same events, on the 
general interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, 125 
to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our 
posterity. We wish, that whosoever, in all coming time, 
shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is 
not undistinguished, where the first great battle of the 
Revolution was fought. We wish, that this structure may 130 
proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event, to 
every class and every age. We wish, that infancy may 
learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and 
that weary and withered age may behold it, and be solaced 
by the recollections which it suggests. We wish, that 135 
labor may look up here, and be proud, in the midst of its 
toil. We wish, that, in those days of disaster, which, as 
they come on all nations, must be expected to come on us 
also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, 



20 WEBSTER. 

140 and be assured that the foundations of our national power 
still stand strong. We wish, that this column, rising 
towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many 
temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce, 
in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. 

145 We wish, finally, that the last object on the sight of him 
who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his 
who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him 
of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise, 
till it meet the sun in his coming ; let the earliest light of 

150 the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on 
its summit. 

We live in a most extraordinary age. Events so vari- 
ous and so important, that they might crowd and distin- 

155 guish centuries, are, in our times, compressed within the 
compass of a single life. When has it happened that 
history has had so much to record, in the same term of 
years, as since the 17th of June, 1775 ? Our own Kevo- 
lution, which, under other circumstances, might itself 

IGO have been expected to occasion a war of half a century, 
has been achieved ; twenty-four sovereign and independent 
states erected ; and a general government established over 
them, so safe, so wise, so free, so practical, that we might 
well wonder its establishment should have been accom- 

1G5 plished so soon, were it not far the greater wonder that it 
should have been established at all. Two or three mil- 
lions of people have been augmented to twelve ; and the 
great forests of the West prostrated beneath the arm of 
successful industry ; and the dwellers on the banks of the 



ADDRESS. 21 

Ohio and the Mississippi, become the fellow citizens and 170 
neighbors of those who cultivate the hills of New England. 
We have a commerce, that leaves no sea unexplored ; navies, 
which take no law from superior force ; revenues, adequate 
to all the exigencies of government, almost without taxa- 
tion ; and peace with all nations, founded on equal rights 175 
and mutual respect. 

Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a 
mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the 
individual condition and hapj)iness of almost every man, 
has shaken to the centre her j)olitical fabric, and dashed 180 
against one another thrones, which had stood tranquil for 
ages. On this, our continent, our own example has been 
followed 5 and colonies have sprung up to be nations. Un- 
accustomed sounds of liberty and free government have 
reached us from beyond the track of the sun ; and at this i85 
moment the dominion of European power, in this conti- 
nent, from the place where we stand to the south pole, is 
annihilated forever. 

In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such 
has been the general progress of knowledge; such the 190 
improvements in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in 
letters, and above all in liberal ideas, and the general 
spirit of the age, that the whole world seems changed. 

Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a faint abstract of 
the things which have happened since the day of the bat- 195 
tie of Bunker Hill, we are but fifty years removed from 
it ; and we now stand here, to enjoy all the blessings of 
our own condition, and to look abroad on the brightened 
prospects of the world, while we hold still among us some 



22 WEBSTER. 

200 of those who were active agents in the scenes of 1775, and 
who are now here, from every quarter of New England, 
to visit, once more, and under circumstances so affecting, 
I had almost said so overwhelming, this renowned theatre 
of their courage and patriotism. 

205 

Venerable Men ! you have come down to us from a 
former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened 
out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. 
You are now where you stood, fifty years ago, this very 

210 hour, with your brothers, and your neighbors, shoulder to 
shoulder, in tJie strife for your country. Behold, how 
altered ! The same heavens are indeed over your heads ; 
the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else, how 
changed ! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you 

215 see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from 
burning Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead 
and the dying ; the impetuous charge ; the steady and 
successful repulse ; the loud call to repeated assault ; the 
summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance ; a 

220 thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant 
to whatever of terror there may be in war and death ; — 
all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no 
more. All is peace. The heights of yonder metroj)olis, 
its towers and roofs, which you then saw filled with wives 

225 and children and countrymen in distress and terror, and 
looking with unutterable emotions for the issue of the 
combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its 
whole happy population, come out to welcome and greet 
you with an universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a 



ADDBESS. 23 

felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this 230 
mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not 
means of annoyance to you, but your country's own means 
of distinction and defence. All is peace; and God has 
granted you this sight of your country's happiness, ere 
you slumber in the grave forever. He has allowed you to 235 
behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils ; 
and he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet 
you here, and in the name of the present generation, in 
the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank 
you ! 240 

But, alas ! you are not all here ! Time and the sword 
have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, 
Bead, Pomeroy, Bridge ! our eyes seek for you in vain 
amidst this broken band. You are gathered to your 
fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful 245 
remembrance, and your own bright example. But let us 
not too much grieve, that you have met the common fate 
of men. You lived, at least, long enough to know that 
your work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. 
You lived to see your country's independence established, 250 
and to sheathe your swords from war. On the light of 
Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like 

* another morn, 
Risen on mid-noon ; — ' 255 

and the sky, on which you closed your eyes, was cloudless. 
But — ah ! — Him ! the first great Martyr in this great 
cause ! Him ! the premature victim of his own self- 



24 WEBSTER. 

260 devoting heart ! Him ! the head of our civil councils, 
and the destined leader of our military bands; whom 
nothing brought hither, but the unquenchable fire of his 
own spirit ; Him ! cut off by Providence, in the hour of 
overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom; falling, ere he 

2G5 saw the star of his country rise ; pouring out his gener- 
ous blood, like water, before he knew whether it would 
fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage ! how shall I 
struggle with the emotions that stifle the utterance of 
thy name ! — Our poor work may perish ; but thine shall 

270 endure ! This monument may moulder away ; the solid 
ground it rests upon may sink down to a level with the 
sea; but thy memory shall not fail ! Wheresoever among 
men a heart shall be found, that beats to the transports of 
patriotism and liberty, its aspirations shall be to claim 

275 kindred with thy spirit ! 

But the scene amidst which we stand does not permit 
us to confine our thoughts or our sympathies to those 
fearless spirits, who hazarded or lost their lives on this 
280 consecrated spot. We have the happiness to rejoice here 
in the presence of a most worthy representation of the 
survivors of the whole Eevolutionary Army. 

Veterans ! you are the remnant of many a well fought 
285 field. You bring with you marks of honor from Trenton 
and Monmouth, from Yorktown, Camden, Bennington, 
and Saratoga. Veterans of half a century ! when in 
your youthful days, you put everything at hazard in your 
country's cause, good as that cause was, and sanguine as 



ADDRESS, 25 

youth is, still your fondest hopes did not stretch onward 290 
to an hour like this ! At a period to which you could not 
reasonably have expected to arrive ; at a moment of 
national prosperity, such as you could never have fore- 
seen, you are now met, here, to enjoy the fellowship of 
old soldiers, and to receive the overflowings of an univer- 295 
sal gratitude. 

But your agitated countenances and your heaving breasts 
inform me that even this is not an unmixed joy. I per- 
ceive that a tumult of contending feelings rushes upon 
you. The images of the dead, as well as the persons of 300 
the living, throng to your embraces. The scene over- 
whelms you, and I turn from it. May the Father of all 
mercies smile upon your declining years, and bless them ! 
And when you shall here have exchanged your embraces ; 
when you shall once more have pressed the hands which 305 
have been so often extended to give succor in adversity, 
or grasped in the exultation of victory ; then look abroad 
into this lovely land, which your young valor defended, 
and mark the happiness with which it is filled ; yea, look 
abroad into the whole earth, and see what a name you 310 
have contributed to give to your country, and what a 
praise you have added to freedom, and then rejoice in the 
sympathy and gratitude which beam upon your last days 
from the improved condition of mankind. 



The occasion does not require of me any particular 
account of the battle of the 17th of June, nor any detailed 
narrative of the events which immediately preceded it. 
These are familiarly known to all. In the progress of the 



315 



26 WEBSTER. 

320 great and interesting controvers}^, Massachusetts and the 
town of Boston had become early and marked objects of 
the disj^leasure of the British Parliament. This had been 
manifested in the Act for altering the Government of the 
Province, and in that for shutting up the port of Boston. 

325 Nothing sheds more honor on our early history, and noth- 
ing better shows how little the feelings and sentiments of 
the colonies were known or regarded in England, than the 
impression which these measures everywhere produced in 
America. It had been anticipated, that while the other 

330 colonies would be terrified by the severity of the punish- 
ment inflicted on Massachusetts, the other seaports would 
be governed by a mere spirit of gain ; and that, as Boston 
was now cut off from all commerce, the unexpected advan- 
tage, which this blow on her was calculated to confer on 

335 other towns, Avould be greedily enjoyed. How miserably 
such reasoners deceived themselves! Hoav little they 
knew of the depth, and the strength, and the intenseness 
of that feeling of resistance to illegal acts of power, 
which possessed the whole American people ! Every- 

:'40 where the unworthy boon was rejected with scorn. The 
fortunate occasion was seized, everywhere, to show to the 
whole world that the colonies were swayed by no local 
interest, no partial interest, no selfish interest. The 
temptation to profit by the punishment of Boston was 

345 strongest to our neighbors of Salem. Yet Salem was pre- 
cisely the place where this miserable proffer was spurned, 
in a tone of the most lofty self-respect, and the most 
indignant patriotism. ' We are deeply affected,' said its 
inhabitants, * with the sense of our public calamities j but 



ADDRESS. 27 

the miseries that are noAv rapidly hastening on our breth- 350 
ren in the capital of the Province, greatly excite our com- 
miseration. By shutting up the port of Boston, some 
imagine that the course of trade might be turned hither 
and to our benefit ; but we must be dead to every idea of 
justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we indulge 355 
a thought to seize on wealth, and raise our fortunes on 
the ruin of our suffering neighbors.' These noble senti- 
ments were not confined to our immediate vicinity. In 
that day of general affection and brotherhood, the blow 
given to Boston smote on every patriotic heart, from one 300 
end of the country to the other. Virginia and the Caro- 
linas, as well as Connecticut and New Hampshire, felt and 
proclaimed the cause to be their own. The Continental 
Congress, then holding its first session in Philadelphia, 
expressed its sympathy for the suffering inhabitants of 365 
Boston, and addresses were received from all quarters, 
assuring them that the cause was a common one, and 
should be met by common efforts and common sacrifices. 
The Congress of Massachusetts responded to these assur- 
ances ; and in an address to the Congress at Philadelphia, 370 
bearing the official signature, perhaps among the last, of 
the immortal Warren, notwithstanding the severity of its 
suffering and the magnitude of the dangers which threat- 
ened it, it was declared, that this colony 'is ready, at all 
times, to spend and to be spent in the cause of America.' 375 

But the hour drew nigh, which was to put professions 
to the proof, and to determine whether the authors of 
these mutual pledges were ready to seal them in blood. 
The tidings of Lexington and Concord had no sooner 



28 WEBSTEB. 

380 spread, than it was universally felt, that the time was at 
last come for action. A spirit pervaded all ranks, not 
transient, not boisterous, but deep, solemn, determined, 

' totamque inf usa per artus 
385 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.' 

War, on their own soil and at their own doors, was, in- 
deed, a strange work to the yeomanry of New England ; 
but their consciences were convinced of its necessity, 

390 their country called them to it, and they did not withhold 
themselves from the perilous trial. The ordinary occupa- 
tions of life were abandoned ; the plough was stayed in the 
unfinished furrow; wives gave up their husbands, and 
mothers gave up their sons, to the battles of a civil war. 

395 Death might come, in honor, on the field ; it might come, 
in disgrace, on the scaffold. For either and for both they 
were prepared. The sentiment of Quincy was full in 
their hearts. ^Blandishments,' said that distinguished 
son of genius and patriotism, ' will not fascinate us, nor 

400 will threats of a halter intimidate; for, under God, we 
are determined, that wheresoever, whensoever, or howso- 
ever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free 
men.' 

The 17th of June saw the four New England colonies 

405 standing here, side by side, to triumph or to fall together ; 
and there was with them from that moment to the end of 
the war, what I hope will remain with them forever, one 
cause, one country, one heart. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with the most 



ADDRESS. 29 

important effects beyond its immediate result as a military 410 
engagement. It created at once a state of open, public 
war. There could now be no longer a question of proceed- 
ing against individuals, as guilty of treason or rebellion. 
That fearful crisis was past. The appeal now lay to the 
sword, and the only question was, whether the spirit and 415 
the resources of the people would hold out, till the object 
should be accomplished. Nor were its general conse- 
quences confined to our own country. The previous pro- 
ceedings of the colonies, their appeals, resolutions, and 
addresses, had made their cause known to Europe. With- 420 
out boasting, we may say, that in no age or country, has 
the public cause been maintained with more force of argu- 
ment, more power of illustration, or more of that persua- 
sion which excited feeling and elevated principle can alone 
bestow, than the revolutionary state papers exhibit. These 425 
papers will forever deserve to be studied, not only for the 
spirit which they breathe, but for the ability with which 
they were written. 

To this able vindication of their cause, the colonies had 
now added a practical and severe proof of their own true 430 
devotion to it, and evidence also of the power which they 
could bring to its support. All now saw, that if America 
fell, she would not fall without a struggle. Men felt sym- 
pathy and regard, as well as surprise, when they beheld 
these infant states, remote, unknown, unaided, encounter 435 
the power of England, and in the first considerable battle, 
leave more of their enemies dead on the field, in propor- 
tion to the number of combatants, than they had recently 
known in the wars of Europe. 



30 WEBSTER. 

440 Information of these events, circulating through Eu- 
rope, at length reached the ears of one who now hears me. 
He has not forgotten the emotion, which the fame of 
Bunker Hill, and the name of Warren, excited in his 
youthful breast. 

445 Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the establish- 
ment of great public principles of liberty, and to do honor 
to the distinguished dead. The occasion is too severe for 
eulogy to the living. But, sir, your interesting relation 
to this country, the peculiar circumstances which surround 

450 you and surround us, call on me to express the happiness 
which we derive from your presence and aid in this solemn 
commemoration. 

Fortunate, fortunate man ! with what measure of devo- 
tion will you not thank God, for the circumstances of 

455 your extraordinary life ! You are connected with both 
hemispheres and with two generations. Heaven saw fit 
to ordain, that the electric spark of Liberty should be 
conducted, through you, from the new world to the old ; 
and we, who are now here to perform this duty of patri- 

460 otism, have all of us long ago received it in charge from 
our fathers to cherish your name and your virtues. You 
will account it an instance of your good fortune, sir, that 
you crossed the seas to visit us at a time which enables 
you to be present at this solemnity. You now behold 

465 the field, the renown of which reached you in the heart 
of France, and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. 
You see the lines of the little redoubt thrown up by 
the incredible diligence of Prescott ; defended, to the 
last extremity, by his lion-hearted valor j and within 



ADDRESS. . 31 

which the cornerstone of our monument has now taken 470 
its position. You see where Warren fell, and where 
Parker, Grardner, McCleary, Moore, and other early patri- 
ots fell with him. Those who survived that day, and 
whose lives have been prolonged to the present hour, are 
now around you. Some of them you have known in the 475 
trying scenes of the war. Behold ! they now stretch 
forth their feeble arms to embrace you. Behold ! they 
raise their trembling voices to invoke the blessing of 
God on you, and yours, forever. 

Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundation of this 48O 
edifice. You have heard us rehearse, with our feeble com- 
mendation, the names of departed j)atriots. Sir, monu- 
ments and eulogy belong to the dead. We give them, 
this day, to Warren and his associates. On other occa- 
sions they have been given to your more immediate com- 485 
panions in arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Gates, 
Sullivan, and Lincoln. Sir, we have become reluctant to 
grant these, our highest and last honors, further. We 
would gladly hold them yet back from the little remnant 
of that immortal band. Serus in ccelum recleas. Illustri- 490 
ous as are your merits, yet far, oh, very far distant be the 
day, when any inscription shall bear your name, or any 
tongue pronounce its eulogy ! 

The leading reflection, to which this occasion seems to 495 
invite us, respects the great changes which have hap- 
pened in the fifty years, since the battle of Bunker Hill 
was fought. And it peculiarly marks the character of the 
present age, that, in looking at these changes, and in esti- 



32 , WEBSTER. 

500 mating their effect on onr condition, we are obliged to 
consider, not what has been done in our own country only, 
but in others also. In these interesting times, while 
nations are making individual and separate advances in 
improvement, they make, too, a common progress ; like 

505 vessels on a common tide, propelled by the gales at differ- 
ent rates, according to their several structure and manage- 
ment, but all moved forward by one mighty current 
beneath, strong enough to bear onward whatever does not 
sink beneath it. 

510 A chief distinction of the present day is a community 
of opinions and knowlege amongst men, in different 
nations, existing in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowl- 
edge has in our time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over 
distance, over difference of languages, over diversity of 

515 habits, over prejudice, and over bigotry. The civilized 
and Christian world is fast learning the great lesson, that 
difference of nation does not imply necessary hostility, 
and that all contact need not be war. The whole world is 
becoming a common field for intellect to act in. Energy 

520 of mind, genius, power, wheresoever it exists, may speak 
out in any tongue, and the world will hear it. A great 
chord of sentiment and feeling runs through two conti- 
nents, and vibrates over both. Every breeze wafts intel- 
ligence from country to country ; every wave rolls it ; all 

525 give it forth, and all in turn receive it. There is a vast 
commerce of ideas ; there are marts and exchanges for 
intellectual discoveries, and a wonderful fellowship of 
those individual intelligences which make up the mind 
and opinion of the age. Mind is the great lever of all 



ADDBESS. 33 

things; human thought is the process by which human 530 
ends are ultimately answered ; and the diffusion of knowl- 
edge, so astonishing in the last half-century, has rendered 
innumerable minds, variously gifted by nature, competent 
to be competitors, or fellow-workers, on the theatre of 
intellectual operation. 535 

From these causes, important improvements have taken 
place in the personal condition of individuals. Generally 
speaking, mankind are not only better fed, and better 
clothed, but they are able also to enjoy more leisure; they 
possess more refinement and more self-respect. A superior 540 
tone of education, manners, and habits prevails. This 
remark, most true in its application to our own country, 
is also partly true, when applied elsewhere. It is proved 
by the vastly augmented consumption of those articles of 
manufacture and of commerce, which contribute to the 545 
comforts and the decencies of life ; an augmentation which 
has far outrun the progress of population. And while the 
unexampled and almost incredible use of machinery would 
seem to supply the place of labor, labor still finds its occu- 
pation and its reward ; so wisely has Providence adjusted 550 
men's wants and desires to their condition and their 
capacity. 

Any adequate survey, however, of the progress made in 
the last half-century, in the polite and the mechanic arts, 
in machinery and manufactures, in commerce and agri- 555 
culture, in letters and in science, would require volumes. 
I must abstain wholly from these subjects, and turn for a 
moment, to the contemplation of what has been done on 
the great question of politics and government. This is 



34 WEBSTER. 

560 the master topic of the age ; and during the whole fifty 
years, it has intensely occupied the thoughts of men. The 
nature of civil government, its ends and uses, have been 
canvassed and investigated ; ancient opinions attacked and 
defended ; new ideas recommended and resisted, by what- 

565 ever power the mind of man could bring to the contro- 
versy. From the closet and the public halls the debate, 
has been transferred to the field ; and the world has been 
shaken by wars of unexampled magnitude, and the great- 
est variety of fortune. A day of peace has at length 

570 succeeded ; and now that the strife has subsided, and the 
smoke cleared away, we may begin to see what has actu- 
ally been done, permanently changing the state and con- 
dition of human society. And without dwelling on par- 
ticular circumstances, it is most apparent, that, from the 

575 before-mentioned causes of augmented knowledge and 
improved individual condition, a real, substantial, and 
important change has taken place, and is taking place, 
greatly beneficial, on the whole, to human liberty and 
human happiness. 

580 The great wheel of political revolution began to move 
in America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and 
safe. Transferred to the other continent, from unfortu- 
nate but natural causes, it received an irregular and vio- 
lent impulse ; it whirled along with a fearful celerity ; 

585 till at length, like the chariot wheels in the races of 

antiquity, it took fire from the rapidity of its own motion, 

and blazed onward, spreading conflagration and terror 

around. 

We learn from the result of this experiment, how for- 



ADDRESS. 35 

tunate was our own condition, and how admirably the 590 
character of our people was calculated for making the 
great example of popular governments. The possession 
of power did not turn the heads of the American people, 
for they had long been in the habit of exercising a great 
portion of self-control. Although the paramount authority 595 
of the parent state existed over them, yet a large field of 
legislation had always been open to our colonial assem- 
blies. They were accustomed to representative bodies 
and the forms of free government ; they understood the 
doctrine of the division of power among different branches, 600 
and the necessity of checks on each. The character of 
our countrymen, moreover, was sober, moral, and religious ; 
and there was little in the change to shock their feelings 
of justice and humanity, or even to disturb an honest 
prejudice. We had no domestic throne to overturn, no 605 
privileged orders to cast down, no violent changes of 
property to encounter. In the American Revolution, no 
man sought or wished for more than to defend and enjoy 
his own. None hoped for plunder or for spoil. Eapacity 
was unknown to it ; the axe was not among the instru- 610 
ments of its accomplishment ; and we all know that it 
could not have lived a single day under any well founded 
imputation of possessing a tendency adverse to the Chris- 
tian religion. 

It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less ci5 
auspicious, political revolutions elsewhere, even when well 
intended, have terminated differently. It is, indeed, a 
great achievement, it is the master work of the world, to 
establish governments entirely popular, on lasting foun- 



36 WEBSTER. 

620 dations ; nor is it easy, indeed, to introduce the popular 
principle at all, into governments to wliicli it has been 
altogether a stranger. It cannot be doubted, however, that 
Europe has come out of the contest, in which she has 
been so long engaged, with greatly superior knowledge, 

625 and, in many respects, a highly improved condition. What- 
ever benefit has been acquired, is likely to be retained, 
for it consists mainly in the acquisition of more enlight- 
ened ideas. And although kingdoms and provinces may 
be wrested from the hands that hold them, in the same 

630 manner they were obtained ; although ordinary and vulgar 
power may, in human affairs, be lost as it has been won ; 
yet it is the glorious prerogative of the empire of knowl- 
edge, that what it gains it never loses. On the contrary, 
it increases by the multiple of its own power ; all its ends 

635 become means ; all its attainments, helps to new con- 
quests. Its whole abundant harvest is but so much seed 
wheat, and nothing has ascertained, and nothing can ascer- 
tain the amount of ultimate product. 

Under the influence of this rapidly increasing knowl- 

640 edge, the people have begun, in all forms of government, 
to think, and to reason, on affairs of state. Eegarding 
government as an institution for the public good, they 
demand a knowledge of its operations, and a participa- 
tion in its exercise. A call for the Eepresentative system, 

645 wherever it is not enjoyed, and where there is already 
intelligence enough to estimate its value, is perseveringly 
made. Where men may speak out, they demand it ; where 
the bayonet is at their throats, they pray for it. 

When Louis XIV. said, " I am the state," he expressed 



ADDRESS. 37 

the essence of the doctrine of unlimited power. By the 650 
rules of that system, the people are disconnected from the 
state ; they are its subjects ; it is their lord. These ideas, 
founded in the love of power, and long supported by the 
excess and the abuse of it, are yielding, in our age, to 
other opinions ; and the civilized world seems at last to be 655 
proceeding to the conviction of that fundamental and 
manifest truth, that the powers of government are but a 
trust, and that they cannot be lawfully exercised but for 
the good of the community. As knowledge is more and 
more extended, this conviction becomes more and more 660 
general. Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the fir- 
mament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams. 
The prayer of the Grecian combatant, when enveloped in 
unnatural clouds and darkness, is the appropriate political 
supplication for the people of every country not yet 665 
blessed with free institutions ; 

* Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, 
Give me to see — and Ajax asks no more.' 

We may hope, that the growing influence of enlightened 670 
sentiments will promote the permanent peace of the world. 
Wars, to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast 
down dynasties, to regulate successions to thrones, which 
have occupied so much room in the history of modern 
times, if not less likely to happen at all, will be less likely 675 
to become general, and involve many nations, as the great 
principle shall be more and more established, that the 
interest of the world is peace, and its first great statute, 
that every nation possesses the power of establishing a 



38 WEBSTER. 

680 government for itself. But public opinion has attained 
also an influence over governments, which do not admit 
the popular principle into their organization. A neces- 
sary respect for the judgment of the world operates, in 
some measure, as a control over the most unlimited forms 

685 of authority. It is owing, perhaps, to this truth, that 
the interesting struggle of the Greeks has been suffered 
to go on so long, without a direct interference, either to 
wrest that country from its present masters, and add it to 
other powers, or to execute the system of pacification by 

690 force, and, with united strength, lay the neck of Christian 
and civilized Greece at the foot of the barbarian Turk. 
Let us thank God that we live in an age, when something 
has influence besides the bayoaet, and when the sternest 
authority does not venture to encounter the scorching 

695 power of public reproach. Any attempt of the kind I 
have mentioned, should be met by one universal burst of 
indignation; the air of the civilized world ought to be 
made too warm to be comfortably breathed by any who 
would hazard it. 

700 It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that while, in the 
fulness of our country's happiness, we rear this monu- 
ment to her honor, we look for instruction, in our under- 
taking, to a country which is now in fearful contest, not 
for works of art or memorials of glory, but for her own 

705 existence. Let her be assured, that she is not forgotten 
in the world ; that her efforts are applauded, and that 
constant prayers ascend for her success. And let us cher- 
ish a confident hope for her final triumph. If the true 
spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn. 



ABDEESS. 39 

Human agency cannot extinguisli it. Like the earth's 710 
central fire it may be smothered for a time ; the ocean 
may overwhelm it; mountains may press it down; but its 
inherent and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean 
and the land, and at some time or another, in some place or 
another, the volcano will break out and flame up to heaven. 715 

Among the great events of the half-century, we must 
reckon, certainly, the Eevolution of South America ; and 
we are not likely to overrate the importance of that Eevo- 
lution, either to the people of the country itself or to the 
rest of the world. The late Spanish colonies, now inde- 720 
pendent states, under circumstances less favorable, doubt- 
less, than attended our own Eevolution, have yet success- 
fully commenced their national existence. They have 
accomplished the great object of establishing their inde- 
pendence ; they are known and acknowledged in the world ; 725 
and although in regard to their systems of government, 
their sentiments on religious toleration, and their provis- 
ions for public instruction, they may have yet much to 
learn, it must be admitted that they have risen to the 
condition of settled and established states, more rapidly 730 
than could have been reasonably anticipated. They 
already furnish an exhilarating example of the difference 
between free governments and despotic misrule. Their 
commerce, at this moment, creates a new activity in all 
the great marts of the world. They show themselves 735 
able, by an exchange of commodities, to bear an useful 
part in the intercourse of nations. A new spirit of enter- 
prise and industry begins to prevail ; all the great inter- 
ests of society receive a salutary impulse ; and the 



40 WEBSTEB. 

740 progress of information not only testifies to an improved 
condition, but constitutes, itself, the highest and most 
essential improvement. 

When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the exist- 
ence of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized 

745 world. The thirteen little colonies of North America 
habitually called themselves the ' Continent.' Borne down 
by colonial subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, these 
vast regions of the South were hardly visible above the 
horizon. But in our day there hath been, as it were, a 

750 new creation. The Southern Hemisphere emerges from 
the sea. Its lofty mountains begin to lift themselves into 
the light of heaven ; its broad and fertile plains stretch 
out, in beauty, to the eye of civilized man, and at the 
mighty bidding of the voice of political liberty the waters 

755 of darkness retire. 

And, now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the 
conviction of the benefit, which the example of our 
country has produced, and is likely to produce, on human 

760 freedom and human happiness. And let us endeavor to 
comprehend, in all its magnitude, and to feel, in all its 
importance, the part assigned to us in the great drama of 
human affairs. We are placed at the head of the system 
of representative and popular governments. Thus far 

7G5 our example shows, that such governments are compatible, 

not only with respectibility and power, but with repose, 

with peace, with security of personal rights, with good 

laws, and a just administration. 

We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems 



ADDRESS. 41 

are preferred^ either as being thought better in themselves, 770 
or as better suited to existing condition, we leave the pref- 
erence to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, how- 
ever, that the popular form is practicable, and that with 
wisdom and knowledge men may govern themselves ; and 
the duty incumbent on us is, to preserve the consistency 775 
of this cheering example, and take care that nothing may 
weaken its authority with the world. If, in our case, the 
Kepresentative system ultimately fa,il, popular govern- 
ments must be pronounced impossible. No combination 
of circumstances more favorable to the experiment can 730 
ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of mankind, 
therefore, rest with us ; and if it should be proclaimed, 
that our example had become an argument against the 
experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded 
throughout the earth. 785 

These are excitements to duty ; but they are not sug- 
gestions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all 
that is gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize 
the belief, that popular governments, though subject to 
occasional variations, perhaps not always for the better, 790 
in form, may yet, in their general character, be as durable 
and permanent as other systems. We know, indeed, that, 
in our country, any other is impossible. The Principle of 
Free Governments adheres to the American soil. It is 
bedded in it ; immovable as its mountains. 795 

And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on 
this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. 
Those are daily dropping from among us, who established 
our liberty and our government. The great trust now 



42 WEBSTER. 

800 descends to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to tliat 
which is presented to us, as our appropriate object. We 
can win no laurels in a war for Independence. Earlier 
and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are 
there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and 

805 other founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. 
But there remains to us a great duty of defence and 
preservation ; and there is opened to us, also, a noble pur- 
suit, to which the spirit of the times strongly invites us. 
Our proper business is improvement. Let our age be the 

810 age of improvement. In a day of peace, let us advance 
the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let us develop 
the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up 
its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see 
whether we also, in our day and generation, may not per- 

815 form something worthy to be remembered. Let us culti- 
vate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing 
the great objects, which our condition points out to us, 
let us act under a settled convietion, and an habitual feel- 
ing, that these twenty -four states are one country. Let 

820 our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. 
Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field 
in which we are called to act. Let our object be, our 

COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR 

COUNTRY. And, by the blessing of God, may that country 
,25 itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of 
oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of 
Liberty, upon which the world may gaze, with admiration, 
forever ! - 



INTRODUCTION TO NOTES. 



" 1775 belongs to Massachusetts, — Lexington, Concord and 
Bunker Hill." 

An analysis of this address reveals in Mr. Webster a great his- 
torical art-painter, and a not unprofitable exercise might be sug- 
gested by the teacher in reproducing it as an historical painting of 
a memorable battle scene. 

The contest is thus described by a lineal descendant of General 
Warren. " The re-enforcements moving over the water; the fire of 
the floating batteries and ships of war; the flames from three hun- 
dred houses in Charlestown; the ascent of the British troops, 
pausing from time to time as their artillery played upon the Amer- 
ican works ; the coolness and intrepidity with which that fire was 
sustained by our countrymen, and the fatal precision with which 
they returned it; the broken and recoiling lines of enemy; the 
final retreat of the gallant band who had withstood them ; the tens 
of thousands looking on from the housetops, steeples, and hills of 
Boston and all the neighboring country, and beholding with con- 
flicting emotions the awful struggle in their view. It would, per- 
haps, be difficult to select in history an event more entitled to 
celebration by the character of the exploits, its great national 
effects, its astonishing grandeur, and its affecthig incidents." 

An Association called the Bunker Hill Monument Association, 
was formed in 1823, with the object to erect at Bunker Hill some 
lasting monument of the history, valor, and glory of June 17, 
1775. Daniel Webster was the second President of this Associa- 
tion.i During the three periods of its history, from the laying of 

^ 1 The first President was Gov, John Brooks, a "participant in the Battle 
of Bunker Hill." 

43 



44 ' WEBSTER. 

the Corner-Stone to the completion of this first "Pillar of the 
Republic," there were connected with it the names of many of the 
most famous Americans of the first half of the century. 

As three great names, Warren, Prescott, Putnam, are forever 
connected with the historic battle-ground, so are three with this 
granite record : Horatio Greenough the famous American sculptor, 
whose model was essentially adopted, Loammi Baldwin, who cal- 
culated the proportions, and Solomon Willard who was architect 
and superintendent of the work. It is scarcely less interesting to 
note that during nearly a score of years, in the three periods of 
construction, total-abstinence men were invariably employed by 
the architect, who refused to have completed by those whom he 
deemed America's curse, what had been begun by those who were 
her salvation. 

It is also worthy of remembrance that but for the co-operation 
of the women of Boston, led by Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, it 
would have been left to our own generation to have placed the 
topmost stone, and to another than the orator who laid its Corner- 
Stone, to have heard the prophetic echo distinctly given back by 
the monument on that second ^ festal day, as it gratulated itself 
with its own completion. ^ 

Notes, — Bunker Hill Monument, in 1850, was made to contribute 
to the interests of science, by Professors Eben Norton Horsford, and 
William C. Bond, of Harvard University, who successfully demon- 
strated there the diurnal rotation of the Earth on its axis, by the 
famous pendulum experiment. The ball used for this experiment 
was one of the ill-spent balls of the British. 

The American Flag was displayed from the summit of Bunker 
Hill Monument with great ceremony for the first time, June 17, 1861. 
Colonel Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster, who was present 
as a child at the laying of the Stone, made the speech. 

1 In the Charlestown City Library may be found a full length painting of 
Mr. Webster, represented as delivering this second address, and at the point 
of saying, " This column stands on Union." 

2 A distinct echo of " Over the globe " was given back by the monument, 
as Mr. Webster in his second oration uttered the words which referred to the 
foundation principles of the government: "I would tliat the fifty thousand 
voices present could proclaim it with a shout Avliich should be heard over the 
globe." The applause that followed was as deafening as the battle itself. 



NOTES. 



Line 1. Delegations from all the New England States, most of the 
Middle States, and some of the Southern States, were present. So 
long was the procession, that when the vanguard of the line had 
reached Charlestown Square, the rear had not left Boston Common. 

10, 11. Within a radius of ten miles, it is interesting to note that 
there are no less than ten places of historic interest. 

15-20. Cf. Shakespeare's King Henry the Fifth, Act. IV., 
Scene III., lines 56-67. 

" This story shall the good man teach his son ; 

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 

From this day to the ending of the world, 

But we in it shall be remembered ; 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ; 

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

Shall be my brother : be he ne'er so vile, 

This day shall gentle his condition; 

And gentlemen in England now a-bed 

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, 

And hold tlieir manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day." 

38. Recent historical investigations might make the orator of 
to-day modify this epithet as applied to " Columbus." 

For a vivid and interesting enlargement of this description, see 
"Washington Irving's " Columbus." 

59-65. The most important early settlements were those of Vir- 
ginia Colony, on the James River, 1607 ; Plymouth Colony, 1620 ; and 
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1628, 

83-85. The Corner-Stone of the Monument was laid on the occa- 
sion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

85-88. The Stone was laid with Masonic ceremonies, in which 
Lafayette assisted the Masonic officers. The other "solemni- 
ties " were a prayer by the Rev. Joseph Thaxter, who, as chaplain of 

45 



46 WEBSTEU. 

Colonel Prescott's regiment, half a century before, had stood on the 
same hill to pray for the detachment, and for the success of the battle; 
and an ode by Rev. John Pierpont. 

Line 94-96. There are deposited in the Corner-Stone, five differ- 
ent accounts of the Battle of Bunker Hill, a plan of the battle and of 
Charlestown, an address and letter connected with Bunker Hill Mon- 
ument Association, a copy of Edward Everett's oration on the Battle 
of Lexington, a copy of the "Life of Josiah Quincy," specimens of 
Continental currency, coins and medals of the United States, a frag- 
ment of Plymouth Rock, and a copy of each of the Boston news- 
papers printed during the week of the celebration. 

96-98. The height of Bunker Hill Monument is two hundred 
and twenty feet. 

129-130. Mr. Webster doubtless emphasized the word "great" 
to distinguish this event from Lexington and Ticonderoga. 

137-141. A wish which was a prophecy fulfilled during the years 
of the Civil War, 18G1-1865. 

145-148. A poetical expression not justified by fact. The first 
object seen in approaching Boston is the State House Dome. 

152-193. The student will find an interesting comparison between 
the record of the succeeding years, i.e., from 1825 to the present day. 
For example, the present number of States is forty-two ; the twelve 
millions of people have been augmented to sixty-five millions; the 
country, which had extended itself to the Ohio and Mississippi, is 
now settled from ocean to ocean ; the railroad which the erection of 
Bunker Hill Monument caused to be first constructed in the United 
States, is a network over the entire country; while the telegraphic 
and other electric systems have been both invented and applied. 
Add to these the Civil War; the abolishment [of Slavery; the mea- 
sures undertaken toward the citizenship of the Indian ; the partial 
enfranchisement of women ; the erection of new colleges, especially 
those for women; the countless political, philanthropic, and social 
institutions of America;— and Webster's epitome becomes in turn, 
"a faint abstract." 

A broader and equally interesting comparison may also be made 
between Webster's summary and a present review of foreign affairs. 
It is needless to add that lines 177-182 have reference to the French 
Revolution and the career of Napoleon, the succeeding lines to the 
South American Republics. 



NOTES. 47 

Line 199-204. As the result of careful effort on the part of the 
committee, and a provision for their travelling expenses by the State, 
nearly two hundred Revolutionary soldiers, forty of whom were in 
the Battle of Bunker Hill, were present. 

205, 206. It is amusing to note in the Memorials of Daniel 
Webster, that this oft-quoted passage, " Venerable men ! you have 
come down to us from a former generation," is associated with a 
trivial experience of a fishing excursion of the day before. 

Vide Memorials of Daniel Webstei'. 

215, 216. Next to the death of Joseph Warren, the firing of 
Charlestown was considered the most tragic event of the historic 
week. 

241-243. Colonel Wm. Prescott,! with a detachment of one 
thousand men, commanded and defended the fort; Gen. Israel Put- 
nam re-enforced Prescott with the Connecticut troops of five hundred 
men, and with Pomeroy held the centre; Col. John Stark, who de- 
clared that there was no commander of the American troops on that 
hard-fought day, became afterward Brigadier-General of tlie Revolu- 
tionary Army ; John Brooks became the Governor of Massachusetts ; 
Colonel Read commanded Charlestown Neck; Colonel Bridge was 
severely wounded. 

254, 255. Milton's " Paradise Lost," Book V., lines 310, 311. 

256-275. Joseph Warren, the hero martyr of the Battle of 
Bunker Hill, was a graduate of Harvard University, a distinguished 
physician, and a natural leader, whose combined patriotism and 
wisdom prophesied at the outset his promotion. He had already 
been elected President of the Provincial Congress, had contributed 
to the success of Lexington, and had been made a Major-General by 
Congress on the 17th of June, 1775. His fine culture and exquisite 
beauty of character, joined to his true heroism, made him the first 
distinguished loss in the Revolutionary War. 

285-287. Battle of Trenton, Dec. 26, 1776. 

Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. 
Battle of Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1781. 
Battle of Camden, Aug. 6, 1780. 
Battle of Bennington, Aug. 16, 1777. 
Battle of Saratoga, Oct. 7, 1777. 

1 W. H. Prescott, the historian, was the grandson of Prescott of Revolu- 
tionary fame. 



48 WEBSTER. 

Line 322-324. The Boston Port Bill, 1774, closed that port to 
all commerce, and transferred the seat of Colonial Government to 
Salem, who rejected with scorn this opportunity for promotion at the 
expense of her old neighbor. 

363-365. The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 
September, 1774. At this Congress fifty-one delegates were present, 
and every colony was represented except Georgia. 

379. Lexington, April 19, 1775, gave the first eight men to the 
cause of Liberty in the Kevolutionary war. 

384, 385. Virgil's " iEneid," Book VI., lines 725, 726. 

" Totamque infusa per artus 
Mens agitat inolem, et magno se corpore miscet." 

" One soul is shed through all, 
That quickeneth all the mass, and with the mighty thing is blent." 

William Morris. 

395, 396. It was a grim joke of Franklin, when, at the sug- 
gestion of Hancock that they ** must all hang together," he responded, 
" Yes, or we shall all hang separately." 

397, 398. Josiah Quincy, the orator and patriot, did valiant 
service to the Revolutionary cause by political essays and by his legal 
defence in the trial which attended the Boston Massacre ; he died on 
a return voyage made in the service of his country, from England to 
America, April 17, 1775. 

404, 405. The four New England Colonies were Massachusetts 
Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island. 

407, 408. An instance of the threefold form alluded to on 
page nine. 

418-420. The Colonial Congress of Massachusetts had presented 
after the Stamp Act of 1765, a petition to King George III., and a 
memorial to both Houses of Parliament. William Pitt had cham- 
pioned the cause of the colonists in England ; yet, although the Stamp 
Act was repealed, the doctrine of Pitt was formally repudiated by a 
Declaratory Act, asserting the power of Parliament over the Colonies 
in all cases whatsoever. It Avas this Act that made their cause known 
to Europe. 



NOTES. 49 

Line 425. Among the more important of these Revolutionary 
state papers are the " Report of Franklin before the House of Com- 
mons," 1767; Jonathan Mayhew's discourse ou the " Righteousness of 
Rebellion ; " Samuel Adams's ** Papers on the Rights of the Colo- 
nies;" James Otis's "Letter to a Noble Lord;" the "Address of 
Richard Henry Lee," adopted by Congress, 1775; " Patrick Henry's 
Speech in the Virginia Convention," 1775; Thomas Paine's "Separa- 
tion of Britain and America ; " Josiah Quincy's Letters ; and the 
Declaration of Independence. 

436^38. About fifteen hundred were engaged on the American 
side, against twenty-five hundred of the British forces. The official 
record reads "Americans: killed, 115 ; wounded, 305 ; captured, 30; 
total, 450. British: killed, 206; wounded, 828; total, 1,054." This 
disparity of numbers caused Edward Everett rightly to name this 
battle the " American Marathon." 

440-445. The Marquis de Lafayette was the most distinguished 
foreign guest of this occasion. His name headed the subscription 
list for the monument, and such was his enthusiasm for the enterprise 
that he wrote, "In all my travels through the country, I have made 
Bunker Hill my Polar Star." And when one reads the magnificent 
eulogy included between lines 445 and 493, one is disposed to believe 
that Webster, too, made this point the Polar Star of his oratory. 

448) 449. The Marquis de Lafayette offered, not only his ser- 
vices, but a generous portion of his fortune to the American Colo- 
nists. He arrived in the United States in the spring of 1777, was 
given the commission of Major-General, was engaged in several 
battles of the Revolution, being wounded in one, and remained in 
the service until the war was virtually ended. His visit to the United 
States, 1824-5, was a triumphal progress of a Nation's guest. His 
loyalty to the Republic continued throughout his life, as is evidenced 
by one of his latest sayings to Louis Philippe, " You know that I am 
a Republican, and that I regard the Constitution of the United States 
as the most perfect that ever existed." 

485-487. General Greene was especially the hero of Eutaw 
Springs; Gates, of Saratoga; Sullivan, of Brandy wine; and Lincoln, 
of Charleston. 

490. "Serus in coelum redeas." " Horace," Book I., ode XL, 

line 45. 

"Late may you return to heaven." 



50 WEBSTER. 

Line 491-493. Lafayette, after experiencing many vicissitudes 
of fortune in his own country, died May 20, 1834. 

495-497. The introduction to this second review of the half- 
century, savors too much of repetition (vide lines 157-193) to add to 
the value of the oration, while the simile of line 505 is rather clumsily 
carried out. 

521-523. A poetic prophecy literally fulfilled in our own day hy 
the laying of the Atlantic Cable. 

510-535. In general, the beauty of Webster's paragraphs owes 
much more to logic than to rhetoric. In this passage he reverses the 



547-550. It is worth noting that this "incredible use of machin- 
ery " did not include most of the steam machinery in use to-day. At 
this time all our foreign intelligence came to us by way of sailing- 
vessels. 

559-588. Probably, during the French Revolution and the Na- 
poleonic dynasty, the nature of government was discussed as in no 
other age of the world. Thrones insecure by election or inheritance 
had tottered to their fall, while few had remained unshaken. 

605-607. Another instance of the threefold, compound sentence. 

646, 647. A famous antithetical sentence, frequently quoted in 
public speeches. 

649. It was the ambition of Louis XIV. to make France great 
through an absolute monarchy. His policy is always referred to as 
'That, c'est Moi," "The State, that is Myself! " the French render- 
ing of the English principle of "the divine right of kings" which 
Charles I. expiated on the scaffold. 

667, 668. Pope's translation of Homer's " Iliad," Book XVII., 
lines 729, 730. 

" Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, 
Give me to see — and Ajax asks no more." 

685-708. From the capture of Constantinople, 1453, until 1829, 
Greece was oppressed to the last degree by the Mohammedan power. 
Mr. Webster refers to the struggle of 1820-1829, when Marco Bozzaris, 
the Leonidas of Modern Greece, had perished at Missolonghi, and 
when Lord Byron, in whom both England and America took sad 
interest, had died in the same cause (1824). The temporary defeat 
that the brave Greeks suffered at this period, aroused the sympathy 



NOTES. 51 

of all Europe, and by the aid of foreign allies, Greek independence 
was acknowledged by the Turkish Sultan in 1829. 

Line 720-723. The Revolution of the Spanish Colonies began 
in 1810, and the Republics were established in the following order: 
Chili, 1817 ; Colombia, 1819; La Plata, now Argentine Republic, 1810 ; 
Paraguay, 1810; Peru, 1821. 

757. From this point to the end of the address, note the character 
of a perfect peroration. 

912, 913. John Quincy Adams was inaugurated March 4, 1825. 
917-919. Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece who re- 
modelled the Constitution of Athens, 594 B.C. Alfred the Great, 
who bears to authentic English history, as Arthur to mythic English 
history, the relation of first recorded hero. 



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